Electronic news gathering

For the Canadian television drama, see E.N.G.

ENG is a broadcasting (usually television) industry acronym which stands for electronic news gathering. It can mean anything from a lone reporter taking a single camcorder out to get a story to an entire television crew taking a satellite truck on location to do a live cut-in for a newscast. Specifically, it refers to the technical means of gathering audio and video, rather than the gathering of facts and note-taking.

ENG originally referred to the use of point-to-point terrestrial microwave signals to backhaul the remote signal to the studio, however, in modern news operations it also includes SNG (satellite news gathering) and DSNG (digital satellite news gathering). ENG is almost always done using a specialty truck such as those made by Frontline or Wolfcoach. Terrestrial microwave vehicles can usually be identified by their masts which can be extended up to 50 feet in the air (to allow line-of-sight with the station's receive antennas), while satellite trucks always use a larger dish that unfolds and points skywards towards one of the geostationary communications satellites operated by companies such as PanAmSat, SES Americom or IntelSat(the satellite antenna's angle of elevation depends on the latitude of the dish, where a dish located closer to the equator will be pointing higher in the sky).

In the U.S. there are ten ENG video channels set aside in each area for terrestrial microwave communications, with frequency coordination typically done by the local Society of Broadcast Engineers chapter rather than the FCC. In Atlanta for example, there are two channels each for the four news TV stations (WSB-TV, WAGA, WXIA-TV, WGCL-TV), one for CNN, and another open for other users on request, such as GPB. It is worth noting that this situation is in flux, as the FCC is currently seeking to auction off some of the 2GHz frequency bands.

See also: electronic field production (EFP)